Rounding out the first day at New York Comic Con 2025 was a panel and screening for the FX and Hulu series Alien: Earth. The screening? The first episode of the show, but on the big screen with thousands of screaming fans, who in a panel room, unlike space, you can in fact hear scream. The panel? Well, here’s the official synopsis, followed by our recap of the big news items. News!
FX’s “Alien: Earth” crash-lands at New York Comic Con for the first time! Join series creator Noah Hawley, EP David W. Zucker (Scott Free) and the cast of this critically acclaimed sci-fi horror series for an unforgettable discussion. Inspired by the acclaimed feature film franchise, FX’s “Alien: Earth” follows a young woman (Sydney Chandler) and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers who make a fateful discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet’s greatest threat. FX’s “Alien: Earth” airs Tuesdays at 8pm ET/PT on FX and is available to stream on Hulu.
After the screening, the panelists headed out, including: EP David W. Zucker, and stars Sydney Chandler (Wendy), Alex Lawther (Joe), Babou Ceesay (Morrow) and Samuel Blenkin (Boy Kavalier).
Kicking things off, moderator Alan Sepinwall asked what the panelist’s first memories of the Alien franchise. Sydney Chandler said she watched it too young, and her parents didn’t know, and it gave her nightmares. “It was Gollum, and Xeno,” Chandler said. “So I have a very intimate relationship with that.”
Chandler continued by explaining how she got the role on the show, after getting obsessed with the script. She flew all the way to Canada to convince Noah Hawley to cast her, took him out to dinner, got the role… And then found out he lives five minutes away from her in Texas.
Zucker explained how Noah Hawley got the job: it was FX, who have worked with Hawley plenty of times before. It was all because of John Landgraf, who came to Hawley and asked it he wanted to do the show. Zucker further explained that the challenge was in getting the franchise from a two hour survival story to something longer that will “go to some extraordinary places.”
Zucker then surprised the cast with a note from Ridley Scott. I couldn’t transcribe all of it, but Scott did say, “Congratulations to Noah and the team… Noah has kept the beast alive and scaring us for a while longer… Scream away, no-one will hear you.” He also loves how the show reproduced sets and the look from the original movie.
[Editor’s Note: We’ve updated this piece with Scott’s full note, provided by FX. You can read it at the bottom of this article.]
Asked about the creatures, it turns out there was a fair amount on set, which was then spruced up in post. Still, Samuel Blenkin explained that they would rub the sheep’s belly with a long pole with a hand on the end of it, and “that was her cue to stare into space. It was really scary!”
As for the stand-out Episode 5, Ceesay explained, “Because it was the time of the strikes, there wasn’t a written episode five.” Instead, Noah Hawley explained the whole episode to him… He started taking notes, and then halfway through stopped because Hawley was telling him the story of a whole Alien movie.
Ceesay also noted that his daughter in the episode is his real-life daughter, who he had told about how hard you need to work to break into Hollywood — and the next day, Hawley asked if they could cast his daughter.
One other note about Ceesay, who plays a cyborg? He said that KY Jelly was the most important prop on set, though Blenkin mentioned his cyborg arm, and how interesting it is that it seems to have gone missing. Ceesay feigned surprise, and yeah, it’s pretty clear he “borrowed” it from set.
Moving over to how Chandler played a kid in an adult’s body, she “tried a kid’s karate class,” and stared at old photographs, but ultimately, “You can’t research something like this.” Ultimately, she boiled it down to “what a child means to me” which means “present, and brave… You haven’t been battered down into a mold that society gives you.”
As for the rest of the Lost Boys? They all played ukulele, played musical chairs, painted rocks, and “learned how to kill people.”
What about Blenkin, and whether he took his tech trillionaire from anyone in particular? He joked that there’s nobody to focus on in this “perfect world,” but more seriously he felt the character is on the page… He let the character and the words speak for themselves, when it comes to any real-world parallels.
When Ceesay was asked about Timothy Olyphant, and specifically the fight between his character Kirsh and Morrow in the finale, Ceesay says, “I love Tim so much, just the mention of his name makes me beam.” And then added that it was just nice working with him. Similarly, Chandler also loved working with Olyphant, recalling how they played catch while filmed the pilot.
But what of a second season? After Lawther mused about how it would be interesting to see his character grow in a second season, Sepinwall asked the crowd whether they’d like to see a second season, to cheers from the audience. “We’ll pass that along to FX,” the moderator said.
Wrapping up, Chandler said on the original that, “You should not recreate it… It’s perfection in cinematic terms.” And she shouted out how Hawley honored the spirit of the movie, through the show.
And that’s it. See you again for Alien: Earth… Resurrection? At the very least, read Ridley Scott’s note in full.
Congratulations to Noah and his team on the massively successful foray into the Alien universe with Alien: Earth.
When I created this world almost 50 years ago, I could never have imagined that it would continue to resonate so strongly with audiences around the world decades later. It is particularly satisfying to learn that younger generations who are embracing Alien: Earth are going back to our film to see where it all began.
The cinematic design still looks sharp 46 years later. Such a clever re-use of the original sets. I bloody drew them personally back in the day: the chamber of computers (mother’s room/womb), the corridors, etc. It’s incredible to see how Noah has embraced these trademark Alien elements while bringing something new for the fans.
And as writing is the most challenging part of any production experience — it all follows from there — Noah has kept the beast alive and dripping, to scare the hell out of us for some time longer!
A big thank you to John Landgraf and his excellent team at FX for all of their brilliant work on this new series.
SCREAM away — no one will hear you!!!
Comic Book Club Live Info:
Discover more from Comic Book Club
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.